Daniel Lamy
& team
J.P. Morgan
After two years on top, J.P. Morgan’s team of three helmed by Daniel Lamy slips to second place. Clients admire the London-based group’s proprietary data about capital inflows to European high-yield funds, which “allows you to gauge your position relative to broad market movements,” as one buy-side backer puts it. Weekly reports that screen for these comparative values also earn high marks, especially a January 2012 recommendation to buy the 4 percent 2015 bonds of Portugal’s state-owned railway, Rede Ferroviária Nacional, at 42 percent of par value. The strategists deemed default unlikely, and they simultaneously advised going long on Portugal’s five-year credit default swaps, at 39 basis points, on Lisbon’s fiscal discipline. Through January 2013 the bonds had rallied to 94 percent of par value and the swaps had narrowed to 7 basis points. — Ben Mattlin